Black Rider
by nightrider
Summary: A twist on Princess Mononoke. A few characteristics have changed, but it's cool. Hope you like! Review!


The Black Rider rides into the small village. This village knows no violence, oppression, or hate. The village is serene as the water of a hidden lake. 

The Black Rider is wearing a black shirt that is tight around his chest and black pants and black leather boots. His long black cape trails behind him in the wind. His dark brown hair winding behind him. The moon casts strange shadows along the walls of the silent houses. The Black Rider creeps in unnoticed. Nobody hears him, nobody knows he's there.

"Ummph," the Black Rider hears a noise of a person falling down behind him. He halts his horse and listens again. What was that, he wonders.

The Black Rider hears a splash of water. His ears perk up at this sound. Black Rider feels the adrenaline rush through his veins. His dark horse rears up and flares it's nostrils. The Black Rider shoots his hand to the sheath that his sword is held in. He grabs the hilt of his sword.

"Oooooh," a moaning sound comes from around a well. Black Rider grabs the reins of his horse and trots to the noise.

Black Rider is surprised to see a young girl, about three years younger than him. He was twenty-three, she was around twenty. Black Rider sees that the girl is hurt. He bends down and picks the girl up by the waist. Her eyes are closed and Black Rider doesn't even want to think what that means. He pulls her onto the horse in front of him.

"Yah!" he yells to the horse and the horse charges into speed and rides off towards a place far off in the darkness.

Fire crackles in a cave. The young girl wakes up in a bed of many blankets. She has no idea where she is. The girl looks around frightened. The last thing that she remembers was not in a cave. She was by the well. Then she fell down because of something that hit her in the side. 

The girl brought her hand to her side. She felt a bandage wrapped around her stomach. What happened, she thinks. The girl rises herself up. She sees the Black Rider. He is fixing something over the fire. She then feels a breeze across her chest. She then realizes that she is naked. She grabs the blanket frantically and wraps it around her body. She wondered if the man had seen her nude body while bandaging her. She came to the conclusion that he probably did.

"What am I doing here?" she asks Black Rider with a frown.

Black Rider slowly turns to her. She notices that he has a scar across his lower lip, definitely a sign of some kind of warrior.

"I found you out by a well. You had fallen unconscious. I took you here to take care of you. You've been asleep for two days now. You need your rest," Black Rider said with a deep serious voice.

"I want to go home!" the girl said loud enough to not make the man mad. He looked back at her with an expressionless look. He turned back to fixing food over the fire.

"You can't go home," Black Rider said, "You are in danger there. When you fell, it was the cause of an arrow. An arrow of the Men of Layola. They are dangerous to you and your people. If you don't want to endanger your village, you must stay with me. They were sent after you, I don't know why, but I know it was not for good. You must not stay in one place for too long. I think they have already sent spies out to look for us."

"Who are you anyway?" she asks the Black Rider narrowing her eyes. She wouldn't reveal herself before he did. She didn't know what his intentions were.

"I am the Black Rider. My name is Ashitaka. You can call me Ash. I journey from place to place taking care of towns. Right now, my job is to be taking care of you," he answered.

"Now, I think you would like to know who I am, right?" the girl asked Ash. "Well, I am San. I come from the town of Debrese. I can't remember who I was. I remember a painful blow to the head when I was a teenager. Then these people I think that's all that I know."

"I know who you are," said Ash. "You will learn about your past soon. I can't help you. That is your task...for now."

San looked at Ash quizzically. But she knew not to ask Ash too many questions. Not until she knew him a little more that he wouldn't get annoyed. Ash looked at San with seriousness, but he felt a completely different feeling tugging in his mind. Ash thought about his feelings for a few moments and then came back to reality.

"San, you must go get some rest now. We leave tomorrow!"


End file.
